Dr Cory Rodgers

Cory Rodgers is an anthropologist researching inclusive development policies and refugee-host dynamics in Eastern Africa. Since 2015, he has worked primarily in Turkana County in northwestern Kenya, the site of the 3-decades-old Kakuma refugee camps as well as the more recently established Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement.

Cory's current work in Turkana investigates how programmes intended to foster inclusivity and integration among refugees and hosts can instigate political conflicts over representation, as various stakeholders attempt to define a ‘host community’ out of an otherwise diverse population. For his doctoral work, Cory undertook an ethnography of the development encounter in Turkana, with attention to the marginalisation of the pastoralist majority amidst education-based stratification and the rise of an urban political class.

Cory recently co-authored an article entitled Social cohesion or social coercion? How policies to improve refugee–host relations can go astray.